Sam was sick to her stomach and everywhere else as she left the White House to return to HQ. He’d never been so enraged with her. Even when she’d pushed him out of the way of a woman with a gun in Eastern Market the first week they were together, it hadn’t been like this.

He was furious—and with good reason.

Her phone rang with a call from Freddie. “Hey, how’s Elin?”

“She’s sleeping, but I heard about Gigi shooting Cam’s ex, and I’m wondering if they’re okay.”

“As far as I could tell, they’re shocked, but it was a clear-cut case of self-defense since Jaycee got into her home and threatened her with a knife, among other things.”

“What other things?”

“She sexually assaulted her.”

“Oh my God.”

“Yeah, but Gigi kept her wits about her and survived against a crazy woman with a knife.”

“Thank God she’s okay. I texted them but haven’t heard back. I hope they’re okay.”

“They will be. In time.”

“Why do you sound weird?” Freddie asked.

“It’s been one hell of a day.”

“How so besides that?”

“I just had a big fight with Nick.”

“Wait. What? You guys don’t fight.”

“Sometimes we do, but not like this. He’s furious with me.”

“How come?”

“A while ago,” Sam said, sighing, “I asked Avery to take an informal look at Nick’s mother on a hunch she was up to no good since she hadn’t tried to shake Nick down for money lately. They found she’s running a high-end escort service in Ohio.”

“No way.”

“Yes way. Just when Nick is making progress in getting people to talk about something other than his inexperience or his age or all the other reasons he shouldn’t be president, this will undercut everything.”

“You couldn’t have known that would happen when you asked, or that he’d end up being president.”

“No, but now he has a mess to clean up that I created, and he’s mad, Freddie. Really, really mad.”

“He’ll get over it. He loves you and knows you had only his best interest in mind when you asked Avery to get involved.”

“I hope you’re right about that.”

“Come on, Sam. This is you and Nick, the most stupidly in-love couple any of us has ever met.”

“Stupidly, huh?” she asked with a small smile.

“So stupidly. He might’ve been surprised and upset, but he’ll get over that. You know he will.”

“I guess we’ll see. In the meantime, I’m on my way back to HQ to talk to a drug kingpin that Narcotics has been after for years who may or may not factor into our case.”

“Do you need help? I can come in. Elin’s asleep for the night.”

“That’s okay. Captain Malone is back and will be there.”

“I’m glad he’s back. That’s a relief.”

“It is, but Faith said something today about the USA looking into the Ramsey shooting just to make sure all the bases are covered in light of the department’s history with Sergeant Ramsey.”